Second Chances
by Ilse'sPurpleSummer
Summary: After Kurt sees how Ryder and Unique are suffering after Unique reveals herself as the "catfisher", Kurt calls two friends from his days at Dalton to help Ryder see things a little more clearly. Contains OC's Spencer Willis and Merill Portman from CP Coulter's beautiful "Dalton."


Title: Second Chances

Summary: After the whole big "Unique is Katie" revelation, Kurt can see that Ryder is hurting, so he calls a few old friends from his days at Dalton to help him get things sorted in his head.

Disclaimer: I don't own Glee, obviously, and Spencer and Merill are property of CP Coulter and her glorious story, "Dalton."

Ryder slammed the door to the choir room behind him, angry beyond belief. He had just gone to tell Shue he was quitting, and even after he told him why Shue had tried to talk him out of it. He didn't seem to understand how truly betrayed Ryder felt, especially after finding out that it was Unique, and that Jake and Marley, his supposed best friends, had known the entire time and were protecting him… her… Ryder shook his head. He was so mixed up right now.

"Ryder?" a soft voice behind him caught his attention. He spun around to see Kurt standing there. "Are you ok?" he continued, his blue eyes concerned.

"No, no I'm not ok," he said, his voice low and desperate. He paced the width of the hallway, back and forth. "How could they do this to me? How could _Unique_? We were supposed to be friends, I tried to protect and help and I just don't even know how to process, how to understand someone like that, much less have someone like that _like_ me. I just can't deal with it, I mean he's a dude!" Kurt tilted his head at him.

"Well, this reaction is probably the exact reason Unique didn't tell you," he said. "I know that a while back you told Unique that she was a girl. But you didn't really believe it, did you?" Ryder shook his head wordlessly, so Kurt continued. "And I'd be willing to bet that you see Wade as a more complicated version of gay than me or Blaine, or as a gay guy who likes to crossdress. But that's not the case at all. Wade doesn't exist. Unique isn't an opposite personality to Wade. Unique is who she is." Ryder sank onto the ground, holding his head. He still couldn't wrap his mind around it. Kurt sat down next to him. "I know you feel betrayed. I know it hurts. And I want to help. Meet me at the Lima Bean tomorrow after school… there's someone I know who might be able to help." Ryder nodded, then after a moment leaned over until his head rested on Kurt's shoulder. He smiled, then wrapped his arm around him and held him as he cried.

_The next day…_

Ryder took a deep breath and adjusted his shirt before reaching for the handle of the door. He pulled it open and stepped into the Lima Bean, breathing deep again as the smell of coffee filled his nose. He glanced around and spotted Kurt's bright red jacket. He was sitting at a table with a girl and a boy. Ryder made his way over to them. Kurt glanced up at him and smiled.

"Hey, Ryder! Glad you made it," he exclaimed. He pointed to the boy, who had floppy brown hair similar to Ryder's, and the girl, who had shiny brown hair, pretty dark brown eyes, and delicately pretty facial features. Their hands rested on top of the table, fingers intertwined together. "This is Spencer Willis, and this is Merill Portman. Spencer went to Dalton with me, and Merill will be a senior there this year." Ryder smiled and sat down next to Kurt. Then what Kurt had said sunk in, and he turned to Merill with a confused frown.

"Wait, you go to Dalton? But you're a girl," he said. Merill glanced over at Spencer, who squeezed her hand encouragingly.

"It looks that way, doesn't it?" she said softly. Ryder's eyes widened and he looked at her more closely. She was slender and fine boned, very pretty, dressed impeccably and she even had boobs and cleavage and stuff. She giggled a little as he checked her out. "I'm pre-op, but I'm taking estrogen pills to prepare… I'm getting the surgery in 6 months." Ryder was speechless. Then his eyes moved over Spencer and Merill's clasped hands and he found his voice again.

"And you guys are… together?" he asked. Spencer nodded, his eyes soft as he looked at Merill.

"We met about two years ago. Merill showed up on the doorstep of Hamilton, my dorm, soaking wet and crying. I got her an extra blanket… even soaked she was beautiful. We gave her a single room and we treated her with respect and dignity, especially after hearing her story… I never saw Merill as anything other than the most beautiful, perfect girl in the world. I almost blew it with her, before we were even together, but thankfully the sight of me screaming my feelings to the sky outside her window convinced her to give me a chance." Merill giggled at him.

"Well, it was quite the shock," she said. She turned to Ryder. "He told me that I ruined him, that no other girl was good enough after meeting me. That he had to be with me, or he would be condemned to a life of loneliness. It's pretty hard to say no to that." Ryder couldn't help but grin. It was a pretty adorable story. "We've been together ever since. Spencer was supposed to go to West Point, but he decided to go to Ohio U in Lima instead… to be there for me during the transition." Spencer squeezed her hand.

"I never wanted it anyway, you know that," he murmured. She smiled back at him, and Ryder marveled at the absolute love and trust in the way they spoke to and looked at each other. Kurt was smiling too as he turned to Ryder.

"Merill ended up at Dalton after her parents kicked her out and told her not to come back unless she was ready to live as a boy. She went to her aunt and uncle, and they love her support her decision to not hide who she is. When her parents found out, they decided to compromise… Merill could stay herself, but only if she went to Dalton. My guess is that their plan was to send her to an all-boys school in the hopes that it would crush her into conforming… unfortunately for them, the opposite happened. The boys at Dalton treat Merill like a princess and the girls at Dobry are fighting for the school to let Merill spend her senior year there. She's made friends and found someone who loves her exactly as she is." Ryder nodded. He still felt angry, but after hearing part of Merill's story he felt a little bad for Unique. Merill leaned forward.

"Kurt's told me that you're having some trouble with Unique," she said softly.

"Yeah," Ryder said. "Basically, someone was catfishing me to get close to me, and we had a real connection, and then I found out it was fake. I thought it was Kitty, then I thought it was Marley, but then it turned out to be Unique, and I felt really betrayed, like the whole thing was fake." Spencer leaned forward now too, his dark eyes intense.

"Why?" he said. Ryder blinked.

"Why what?" he said.

"Why do you feel betrayed?" Spencer asked. Ryder frowned.

"Because the person I thought I liked and cared about turned out to be fake," he said. Spencer shook his head.

"No, she's not," he said simply. Ryder just stared at him.

"What do you mean, she's not?" he exclaimed. "I just told you, Unique was catfishing me, there was no Katie at all." Spencer shook his head more firmly.

"Just because it wasn't Katie doesn't mean she isn't real," he said. "That connection, those feelings, they are real. Because Unique is real. She feels those things, every word the two of you exchanged was real. She is a real person. You're just choosing not to accept it." He leaned back, touching Merill's cheek gently. "I won't lie to you and pretend that being with Merill is easy all the time. It's not, for either of us. We have our difficult moments, and there are times we've both wanted to take the easy way out and be done with it. But when that happens, we always push through. Because having Merill in my life, loving her, and having her trust me enough to show me her true self… there's no power in the world that could make me give her up now."

After his talk with Spencer, Merill, and Kurt, Ryder walked home. It was almost 4 miles, but he had a lot to think about. His thoughts were swirling so fast he couldn't catch hold of them. Finally, he settled on one in particular. Spencer had said that the feelings he and Unique shared were real. That meant that no matter what name she went by, Unique understood him. Accepted him and liked him. Whether he liked it or not, Unique was a part of him now. He pulled out his phone and scrolled through his pictures until he reached the one he was looking for. It was a picture of Marley and Unique singing at their Christmas show earlier that year. Unique was wearing a pretty blueish green dress and had a feather headband in her hair. She looked beautiful. He was a little startled by that realization. And now that the floodgates were opened, the realizations kept coming. He realized how hard it must have been for Unique to look at him every day, to let herself fall for him when there was no hope that he'd feel the same way. He realized that the reason he'd been so hurt was because "Katie" had come to mean so much to him, and he didn't want to lose that. He realized that he didn't care that it was Unique. He didn't want to lose that connection. If he had to, he'd swallow his pride and work things out with her in order to keep it. He started to understand what Spencer had been telling him.

_"Having Merill in my life, loving her, and having her trust me enough to show me her true self… there's no power in the world that could make me give her up now." _Spencer's words echoed in his head. He closed out of the picture on his phone and opened a text instead. He typed _"can we talk?"_, selected Unique in his contacts, and hit send, praying that he wasn't too late for a second chance.

A/N: I actually really like how that turned out. I've started working on a sequel, which I'll probably post separately. But I will add a notice on this story when I post it, for anyone who's interested.


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